# It's a train, you DON'T walk in front of it. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 2, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524 "2003-12-02T16:48:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/21 "2003-12-03T14:09:20Z")
The real bitch of all this is that one day one of these brainless idiots will get killed or maimed and then they (or their families, depending on just how dead the “victim” is after the accident) will SUE, claiming that there should’ve been more safeguards in place to prevent such a tragedy from happening. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/22 "2003-12-03T14:15:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Edward The Head \* > \*\*I also heard on the radio that the woman who did it yesterday got a stern talking to by one of the conductors. \*\* They should have thrown her off the train and made her wait for the next one. Stupid cow. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/23 "2003-12-03T15:29:00Z")
I heard an announcement on the train one morning, “The gentleman in the orange jacket should know that running across the tracks in front of the train like that was very dangerous and illegal.” Guess he must have cut it extra-close to get that kind of treatment. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/24 "2003-12-03T16:07:20Z")
Geez, **Ed** , ya big whiner. There you are, sitting in the lap of luxury while the rest of us shlubs potsie around in a sardine can that’s so overstuffed arms and legs are hanging out the doors on an hourly basis, and you got the nerve to complain because some people wanna be speed bumps? Where’s your sense of persepctive, my good fellow? 😉 Truth is, hardly a day goes by where some nut doesn’t try to force himself or herself into a metro car, causing the doors to open… and close…and open… and close… until the dope is either all the way in or all the way out. Meanwhile the rest of us are pissed because this jackass has delayed us a few more minutes. This despite the fact that another train will be along in a couple of minutes anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/25 "2003-12-03T16:43:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > Geez, **Ed** , ya big whiner. There you are, sitting in the lap of luxury while the rest of us shlubs potsie around in a sardine can that’s so overstuffed arms and legs are hanging out the doors on an hourly basis, and you got the nerve to complain because some people wanna be speed bumps? Where’s your sense of persepctive, my good fellow? 😉 Well I could tell you about the times when we have to stand because they only give us three cars instead of five. Or that standing on the train is hard because, unlike you metro people we only get an aisle and not most of the car to stand in. Or I could tell you all about the smelly bathrooms we have on the train. But you’re right I whine too much. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![5que](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/3bc359/32.png) [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/26 "2003-12-03T17:52:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ferret Herder \* > **I saw a sting where cops would stand on the boarding side of the tracks and just watch people cross - then grab them after they did and write all of them tickets. $500 fine or some number of hours of community service.** Well, we had another train versus person this morning in the Chicago Suburbs. Train won. Luckily it wasn’t on my route, though I’m less upset getting to work late than getting **Home** late. At my station, the police sometimes get people in the afternoons – you have to cross the tracks to get to the main parking lot. One day they had a video camera set up too. So we’re standing at the crosswalk, the train pulls out but the lights and bells are still going off. On the other side of the crosswalk is a video camera and 5 cops. A _half dozen_ idiots walk right across into the arms of the waiting police (6 \* $500 = $3000!). Not only are they stooopid, but blind too. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/27 "2003-12-03T20:53:00Z")
Here’s a suggestion: after someone gets killed running across the tracks, they should take a gory photo of his remains, blow it up poster-sized, then hang it where everyone can see it. If _that_ don’t stop 'em, nothing will. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/28 "2003-12-03T21:07:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*Here’s a suggestion: after someone gets killed running across the tracks, they should take a gory photo of his remains, blow it up poster-sized, then hang it where everyone can see it. If _that_ don’t stop 'em, nothing will. \*\* . . . Nothing will. I remember years ago, at the NY entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, there was a totalled car, nothing but a charred shell, with the sign “HE CHANGED LANES” on it. Had no effect. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/29 "2003-12-03T21:25:40Z")
Manys the time I see people crossing the street, as the light turns green! These people are suicidal…I particularly like the teenagers, who sulk as they stroll across the intersection, oblivious to the green lights! ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/30 "2003-12-03T22:25:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ferret Herder \* > \*\*There was some show on a cable channel about train wrecks and so on, that I was watching. I was surprised to see a familiar scene in one of the clips - the train station I used to get on at a few years previous. Someone had set up a video camera to film some antique-type train that would be coming by later. Instead, he caught an accident. You see two people who’d gotten off the stopped commuter train, a man and a woman. They walk forward in front of the train at the crossing, and begin to cross, ignoring the fact that the gates are down (typical) and that the bells are ringing (not typical). What not everyone realizes is that if the bells are ringing, a **moving** train is approaching the intersection. This particular line has three tracks, the middle track is a passing one. It happened to be that day that the moving train which was setting off the warning bells was on that track, heading in the same direction that the stopped train had been, so it was hidden. The man looked past the stopped train, then stepped back quickly. The woman doesn’t, you see her continue as another train comes into view, then the film is stopped there. She died, of course. \*\* Does anyone have a link with the exact circumstances of this incident? I’ve tried Googling with no luck. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/31 "2003-12-03T23:46:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Long Road \* > \*\* > > So along comes Mr. Idiot who is stopped by Officer Friendly. Office Friendly tells Mr. Idiot that he can’t go this way, it’s flooded and he must find another route. Mr. Idiot proceeds to tell Officer Friendly how he doesn’t have time for all of this and has to be somewhere and then proceeds to drive straight into flooded area where his car promptly disappears. Mr. Idiot then climbs on car and starts yelling at Officer Friendly to swim out and save him. > > Officer Friendly’s response amounted to “Go F yourself” > > I have long ago given up on people and am waiting for the roaches to take over. \*\* If you knew Officer Friendly’s real name, I would send him flowers. With the recent floods in the midwest, I had to laugh at a shot on television of an idiot woman in Charleston, West Virginia. She had VISIBLY been warned not to drive through the flood waters, yet did it anyway, and her car was completely submerged. Well, she couldn’t get out, so the rescue workers are out there pulling her OUT of her car with her screaming the whole time. As they’re dragging her out and away, she’s yelling “My car! My car!” like they should go back and save the car. I REALLY hope that her insurance company saw that tape and turned down her claim because it WAS her own stupidity that lost her car. Ava ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/32 "2003-12-03T23:48:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > **Here’s a suggestion: after someone gets killed running across the tracks, they should take a gory photo of his remains, blow it up poster-sized, then hang it where everyone can see it.** Someone I know recently ran across some tracks with a train not too far away. Someone in the group of people we were with (no, it wasn’t me) sent him a link to a disturbing website of the exact thing you described. After seeing it I decided that I would NEVER try to do that. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/33 "2003-12-04T03:14:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Edward The Head \* > \*\*Well I could tell you about the times when we have to stand because they only give us three cars instead of five. Or that standing on the train is hard because, unlike you metro people we only get an aisle and not most of the car to stand in. Or I could tell you all about the smelly bathrooms we have on the train. But you’re right I whine too much. 😉 \*\* Bathrooms? Why, we just pee on each other. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/34 "2003-12-04T09:03:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ferret Herder \* > \*\*The man looked past the stopped train, then stepped back quickly. The woman doesn’t, you see her continue as another train comes into view, then the film is stopped there. \*\* I think that was on one of the **Faces of Death** sequels. Only they went on to show what **buttonjockey** described. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/35 "2003-12-04T12:51:27Z")
Maybe I’m missing something here, but why on earth would a train station be designed where people have to cross the tracks to get to the platform? ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/36 "2003-12-04T13:52:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by An Arky \* > \*\*Maybe I’m missing something here, but why on earth would a train station be designed where people have to cross the tracks to get to the platform? \*\* Well the stations are all 100+ years old. Not that that means much but I guess they don’t want to do much with them. They are pretty safe. Plus most of them are at road crossings as well. I would say they are pretty safe, if you use one brain cell. On a related note, they turned on the do not cross signals today. They are still covered in plastic so you can’t see it but you can hear it. However, they do not turn on when the train is coming now, they turn on two minutes or so before the trains come. Not only do we have to hear the anoying sound, it’s not going to help when people know there might still be time. They also shut off just as the train comes into view, when people cross anyway. It’s going to be mostly an annoyance. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/37 "2003-12-04T15:09:56Z")
You only have to cross the tracks to reach the platform if you’re on the wrong side. 😉 OK, smartass comment aside, **Edward** ’s comment is right - nearly all of these train stations are very old, and were built with what they call grade-level (i.e., street-level) crossings. It would cost a hell of a lot of money, and tie up not only car but also train traffic for weeks/months/longer to replace all of them. These train lines not only carry many thousands of commuters to work in Chicago each day, but also carry freight, and handle Amtrak trains. The alternative is to put in overhead bridges - or underground walkways - to try to provide another way across, but if people are running to catch a train, they’re not going to take a longer route to get to it if they were the types that would dodge crossing gates and ignore warning bells anyway. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/38 "2003-12-04T15:14:25Z")
Well, they could add those walkways and fence off the area around the tracks, like they do for the mass-transit rail stations (like Washington’s Metro). Given the choice between scaling a fence and walking across an overpass, they’d likely choose the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/39 "2003-12-04T15:33:12Z")
The problem is, many or most of these train stations are also located at **street** intersections, rather than being away from the roads in their own space. So, you have people crossing on the sidewalk that runs next to the street, at the intersection of track and road. If you raised the sidewalks only, I’m sure you’d get idiots who’d simply run in the road instead. I guess it’s kind of hard to explain the setup to people who don’t live around here, but these train lines cut right through the middle of suburbs and small towns, as the towns grew up 100 years ago or so around the train stations. There was no real reason then to elevate the train tracks - that would have been inconvenient - or to elevate the street and sidewalk over the tracks. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524/40 "2003-12-04T15:54:13Z")
Well, I live near the OP, and many of the stations here aren’t near intersections - they’re set back from roads. (You are talking about MARC, right **Ed**?) It looks to me that there’s plenty of room to put a pedestrian overpass in without adding danger. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-train-you-dont-walk-in-front-of-it/216524.md?page=3)